Cyber

Cyber, as a word, can have a number of meanings, but for the benefit of this site, we're going to narrow it down to the meanings that are more relevant to the alternative community, the musical version, that's listed here, plus, we'll talk about Cybersex and Cyberpunk

Contents

Cyber aka Cybergoth

This is a form of Electronic Dance Music, which is a subculture that grew from elements of, Gothic, Rave, Trance and Industrial. Generally speaking, the Cyber culture, will follow an Electronic Dance Music style of sound, rather than a more traditional Gothic/Rock style, although, there is a large amount of crossover.
The term 'Cybergoth' was first coined in 1988 in the U.K., by Games Workshop, this was for related to the game Dark Future, but the fashion/style/music genre didn't emerge until nearly a decade later. When Dj Rex at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London, started mixing Rave, Trance, Gothic, and Rock, and many of the Gothic crowd started to dress in brighter colours, originally, this crowd was referred to as "Glow Worms", but soon became known as "Cybergoths", and this was shortened to "Cybers", another short lived name for this crowd was the combination of "Goth" and "Ravers" and became "Gravers", other influential Djs who deserve the title "unsung heros", from these early days were Dj Ian Fford, with his work at New York's legendary "Bat Cave", "Webster Hall", and "The Bank", plus Rexx Arkana, at New York's Limelight.

Other influences for the "Gravers" was the combination of the British Raver look and the NYC ClubKid look with a 'freak show' spin. This fusion between New York and London styles began in the mid 1990s.
Borden indicates that initially the hair extensions and bright fishnets did not mesh well with goth fashion, but by the late 1990s, the rave elements of dress were replaced by Industrial influenced fashion, such as goggles, and reflective clothing, mixed with mostly black clothing.
Nancy Kilpatrick indicates that David Bowie's look in the 1970s is the initial inspiration for the style, and that Fritz Lang's Metropolis provided the prototype for cyber aesthetics. Kilpatrick also notes a link to cyberpunk science fiction, particularly William Gibson's Neuromancer.

Clubs

Much of the Cyber culture is centered around its nightlife; in the United Kingdom the longest running of these clubs is Slimelight, in the early days, the two main London clubs were Slimelight and the Electric Ballroom, there was also The Wendy House in Leeds, Autonomy in Leicester, Tech Noir in Newcastle, Chains on Velvet in Norwich, Nightmare in Nottingham, Ascension and Cyberia in Edinburgh, Bedlam at the Queen Margaret Union in Glasgow, and the yearly Infest festival.

In the United States clubs such as Leland City Club in Detroit, Necto in Ann Arbor, The Castle in Ybor City, Tampa, Death Guild in San Francisco, and Das Bunker in Los Angeles, The Bank, the Limelight and the Bat Cave in New York, showed a strong cybergoth influence. In Canada, the subculture is exemplified by Toronto's monthly Darkrave events at Nocturne Club, the Plastik Wrap boutique, and in Montreal, Les Foufounes Électriques nightclub.